Zéphyrin Camélinat (variously spelled ''Zéphirin'', ''Zéphyrenne'';

Mailly-la-Ville Mailly-la-Ville () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 communes of the Yonne department of France. The commu ...

Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is lo ...

, 5 March 1840Paris, 14 September 1932) was a French politician, writer, communard, socialist and communist.

Biography

Zéphyrin Rémy Camélinat was born into a poor peasant family and became a metal worker by trade. He was a friend of the anarchist writer and social critic P.-J. Proudhon. In 1864, Camélinat was one of the signatories of the 'Manifesto of the Sixty', together with

Henri Tolain Henri Louis Tolain (18 June 1828, Paris – 4 May 1897, Paris), was a leading member of the French trade union and socialist movement and a founding member of the First International and follower of Proudhon. Life He was the son of Antoine T ...

and other Proudhonists. It abandoned political abstentionism and called for elections of workers to the National Assembly, and for the establishment of economic as well as political democracy. Camélinat was instrumental in organising the French section of the

First International The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as ...

and recruited

Benoît Malon Benoît Malon (23 June 1841 – 13 September 1893), was a French Socialist, writer, communard, and political leader. Biography Malon came from a poor peasant family. An opportunity to escape the life of a rural labourer presented itself whe ...

, among others. In 1871 Camélinat participated in the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

, serving as its treasurer. After the suppression of the Commune, he fled to England, where he remained until a general amnesty enabled him to return to France in 1880. From 1885 to 1889 he was a Socialist deputy in the Chamber of Deputies. Soon after the 1885 session opened

Antide Boyer Antide Boyer (26 October 1850 – 24 July 1918) was a French manual worker, Provençal dialect writer and journalist from the south of France who became a socialist deputy. He supported strikes and was involved in the fight for worker's rights aro ...

Émile Basly Émile Basly (29 March 1854 – 11 February 1928) is one of the great figures of trade unionism in mining in the mineral field of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, along with Arthur Lamendin. He is primarily known for his participation in the strike of 1 ...

, Camélinat and others formed the "workers' group", a small socialist group independent of the extreme left. The members of the workers' group summarized their demands in a manifesto on 12 March 1886: Camélinat defended compensation for work accidents, social assistance for the disabled, limiting child labor, separation of church and state and free justice. He was involved in the unification of the French Socialist party (

SFIO The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was found ...

) in 1905. Camélinat CP PC 1932

During the First World War, Camélinat moved increasingly to the left of the Socialist Party and came to oppose its pro-war stance. In 1920 he became a founding member of the new

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

(PCF), serving as its first presidential candidate in the French presidential election of 1924. Camélinat died on 14 September 1931, aged 91. His funeral was organized by FCP and according to ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'', it was attending by over 120,000 workers.

References

Sources

*Bruno Fuligni, ''La France rouge. Un siècle d’histoire dans les archives du PCF'', Les Arènes, 2011 * *''The Great Soviet Encyclopedia''. Moscow, 1979. {{DEFAULTSORT:Camelinat, Zephyrin Members of the International Workingmen's Association Communards French socialists French communists 1840 births 1932 deaths